SELINSGROVE, Pa. – The Susquehanna University men's and women's swimming teams will compete in the Middle Atlantic Conference Swimming Championships at the Wilkes-Barre Catholic Youth Center beginning at noon on Friday, February 11 through Sunday, February 13.

A total of 13 individual and five relay champions will be crowned in both men's and women's competition. Preliminaries will be held during the afternoon session while finals will be contested during the evening sessions.

The Susquehanna men (5-4 overall, 4-3 MAC) finished fifth out of 10 schools and the women (4-6 overall, 4-4 MAC) finished seventh out of 11 schools at the 2004 MAC championships. It was the women's second straight seventh-place finish in the meet while the men improved two spots from 2003.

Performance lists were released on Wednesday afternoon with final scratches and heat assignments to be announced late Thursday. Swimmers are allowed to compete in a maximum of three individual events and seven total events (including relays) during the championships.

Complete meet information, including driving directions and schedule of events, can be obtained via the King's College Web site here.

MEN'S PREVIEW

The Crusaders will be a major factor in this year's championship meet, with a quartet of freshmen hoping to deliver Susquehanna's second individual MAC champion, joining Steve Fischer who won the 200 butterfly at the 2000 championships.

The veteran of the group is junior Nick Hoover (Langhorne, PA/Notre Dame, NJ), who finished second and set a school record in the 100 butterfly (53.67 seconds), seventh in the 200 backstroke (2:05.22) and 10 th in the 200 individual medley (2:06.57) in 2004.

He is seeded in the top 10 in four events at this year's meet: seventh in the 200 fly, eighth in the 100 fly, and ninth in both the 100 and 200 backstroke.

Joining Hoover will be the outstanding rookie quartet of brothers Adam and Alex Thurstlic (Chadds Ford, PA/Garnet Valley), Andrew Lyon (Glenside, PA/Cheltenham) and Jeff Fornadley (Hummelstown, PA/Hershey).

Adam Thurstlic has already climbed near the top of the program list in a number of events, ranking first all-time in the 200 backstroke (2:03.23), second in the 200 IM (2:05.77), third in the 200 freestyle (1:50.13) and fourth in the 100 fly (55.07 seconds). He is seeded third in both the 100 fly and 200 backstroke, fifth in the 200 free, sixth in the 200 IM and seventh in the 100 free at the MAC meet.

Alex Thurstlic ranks fourth all-time in program history in the 100 backstroke (57.64 seconds), sixth in the 100 fly (55.92 seconds) and sixth in the 200 fly (2:08.43), and is seeded in the top eight in all three events.

Lyon owns first place in the Susquehanna record books for both the 500 free (5:03.56) and the 1,000 free (10:22.30), the latter time giving him the top seed in the longer 1,650 freestyle at the MAC championships. He is also seeded third in the 500 free and fourth in the 400 IM (4:35.11).

Fornadley is seeded seventh in the 50 freestyle (22.87 seconds) and ninth in the 100 freestyle (50.47 seconds) after cracking the school top 10 in both events during the regular season.

WOMEN'S PREVIEW

The Crusaders return two top-10 finishers in junior Kelly Chamberlain (Kingston, PA/Wyoming Valley West), and senior Jennifer Roth (Columbia, MD/River Hill).

Chamberlain placed seventh in the 200 backstroke (2:19.43), 10 th in the 100 backstroke (1:04.24), and 10 th in the 200 IM (2:21.97) in last year's MAC Championship

Among Susquehanna records, Chamberlain holds second place in the 100 backstroke (1:03.64), third in the 200 backstroke (2:17.63), and third in the 200 IM (2:19.08), fourth in the 100 fly (1:05.04), fifth in the 50 freestyle, (26.26 seconds), and fifth in the 200 free (2:04.38).

Roth finished 10 th in the 100 fly (1:05.74) and 10 th in the 200 fly in (2:26.21) both of which hold places in the Susquehanna record book, with her time in the 200 fly keeping fourth place and her time in the 100 fly ranks fifth.

Other Crusaders also expected to compete for a spot in finals are freshmen Samantha Meddaugh (Hamilton Square, NJ/Steinert) in the 500 and 1650 freestyle and Lindsey Moretti (Alfred, NY/Alfred-Almond) in the 100 breaststroke.